“This town isn’t big enough for the four of us”
Art:Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy
by Jason Rainville
Table of Contents
Todays Featured Commander Is:
Kinnan is a super sweet commander for CEDH not only is Kinnan super easy to cast, he is pretty much a combo with a few of the rocks in our deck, this ease of generating mana backed up by our counterspells allows us to absolutely move at the speed of light and have many games where we can make infinite mana in the first few turns, Kinnans ability once we have infinite mana allows us to find all of the best creatures in our deck and win through them or a few other spells! Kinnan is the real deal and an absolute ton of fun to pilot! Without further adieu lets get it!
The Deck:
Kinnan Big Mana!
Why Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy?
The main reason that we chose Kinnan is that he is basically a combo with a lot of the mana rocks in our deck and we can easily filter through the deck and get our best creatures to setup a combo win or just get some of our biggest and best creatures out. Kinnan can come out really early and start making a ton of mana which is one of our biggest advantages against our opponents! Kinnan is the real deal and is just a great commander at any CEDH table!
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! For explanations of the combos please refer to the “Main Win Conditions” section below!
Creatures:
We have a pretty sweet early game sweet of creatures like Llanowar Elves
, Birds of Paradise
as our early mana creatures, these are also enhanced by Kinnan! Allosaurus Shepherd
is a card we typically use to have our other green creatures not be counterable! One really interesting card is Armored Scrapgorger
which can be really great against the decks who play Underworld Breach
or really any deck that wants to put stuff in the graveyard.
At the top-end of our curve we have cards that we would mostly like to find with Kinnan like Nyxbloom Ancient
, Terastodon
and Consecrated Sphinx
, all of these are great hits of Kinnan especially when we can ramp into it really early! Trophy Mage
is another great card since we can easily grab a combo piece like Basalt Monolith
and make infinite mana. Stonework Packbeast
is one of our “filter” cards that allows us to take our infinite colorless and make it colored it takes off after this.
Planeswalkers:
We only have one planeswalker in Tezzeret the Seeker
which is a great way to search for one of our combo pieces and a great way to untap artifacts that do not untap after use like Mana Vault
and Grim Monolith
. Our mana ramp allows us to cast Tezzeret pretty early and in a lot of cases we can instantly grab Basalt Monolith and combo off!
Instants:
Our instant package is where pretty much all of our countermagic resides with staples like Force of Will
, Mental Misstep
and Swan Song
just to name a few. We are counter heavy and can very easily win counter-wars. We of course have specific counterspells like Mindbreak Trap
which is a great way to beat the storm and Flusterstorm
of the world! Summoner's Pact
is a great card that allows us to grab a creature, this can be dependent on the situation but a free spell is never something we will look down on!
Sorceries:
Since we ramp so hard in the deck we can easily cast huge spells like Sea Gate Restoration // Sea Gate, Reborn
which is a great way to draw a huge amount of cards and no maximum hand size is never bad! We also have Timetwister
which is a great way to cycle through the deck and get a new 7! Transmute Artifact
is a great way to cheaply grab a combo piece, combine this with Kinnan mana production and we can easily pay the difference.
Artifacts:
Kinnan loves mana rocks so of course our deck is packed with them! Some of the best include Basalt Monolith, Grim Monolith and Mana Crypt
just to name a few! We can make a ton of mana and we have many ways to untap these and not have to suffer the consequences of use! We of course have The One Ring
which not only gives us a bubble of protection for one turn but we can draw a ton of cards, we will never say no to that. Mirage Mirror
is one of the best cards in our deck since we can use it in an infinite number of ways and its always pretty much good!
Enchantments:
Carpet of Flowers
is a great card that against the right table can generate us a ridiculous amount of mana, on top of what we generated ourself! Mystic Remora
, Rhystic Study
are format staples and just great ways to draw cards! Sylvan Library
is a great way to get some extra cards especially in a format most kills are not through lifeloss, even if you don’t take the cards it is nice to get a look at the top of your deck!
Land Base:
Our land base is pretty typical of a CEDH mana base full of fast mana and fetches like Ancient Tomb
and Misty Rainforest
. One of the coolest lands in our deck is Treasure Vault
which when combined with infinite mana acts as a filter for all of our colorless! Another noteworthy land is Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth
which is a great piece of mana fixing for us!
Strengths of the Deck:
- Can easily combo off
- Kinnan can come down early and start adding value
- Very good against stax strategies
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Weak to turn 2 – 3 decks we typically need one more turn in an average game
- Weak to creature hate
- Deck does not work without Kinnan
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
We are in every way a combo deck so of course we have an absolute ton of ways to make infinite mana, once we get infinite mana. Most of the combos in our deck are infinite mana combos since they interact so well with Kinnan. We have a few options we can cast an infinitely big Finale of Devastation
or we can use Hullbreaker Horror
to effectively infinitely wipe our opponents boards and counter everything they play.
Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy + Basalt Monolith
Requires:
All permanents on the battlefield.
Steps:
- Activate Basalt Monolith’s first ability by tapping it, adding 4.
- Activate Basalt Monolith’s last ability by paying 3, untapping it.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite colorless mana.
Basalt Monolith + Nyxbloom Ancient
Requires:
All permanents on the battlefield.
Steps:
- Activate Basalt Monolith’s first ability by tapping it, adding 9.
- Activate Basalt Monolith’s last ability by paying 3, untapping it.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite colorless mana.
Dramatic Reversal
+ Isochron Scepter
Requires:
Isochron Scepter on the battlefield. Dramatic Reversal exiled by Isochron Scepter. Nonland permanents you control can tap to produce at least 3.
Steps:
- Activate all mana-producing nonland permanents you control by tapping them, adding at least 3.
- Activate Isochron Scepter by paying 2 and tapping it, casting a copy of Dramatic Reversal without paying it’s mana cost.
- Resolve Dramatic Reversal, untapping all nonland permanents you control.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite mana nonland permanents you control can produce. Infinite storm count. Infinite magecraft triggers. Infinite untap of nonland permanents you control.
Hullbreaker Horror + Sol Ring
+ Mana Crypt
Requires:
Mana Crypt in hand. All other permanents on the battlefield.
Steps:
- Activate Sol Ring by tapping it, adding CC.
- Cast Mana Crypt by paying 0.
- Hullbreaker Horror triggers, returning Sol Ring from the battlefield to your hand.
- Activate Mana Crypt by tapping it, adding CC.
- Cast Sol Ring by paying 1.
- Hullbreaker Horror triggers, returning Mana Crypt from the battlefield to your hand.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite colorless mana. Infinite storm count.
Hullbreaker Horror + Mana Vault + Mana Crypt
Requires:
Mana Crypt in hand. All other permanents on the battlefield.
Steps:
- Activate Mana Vault by tapping it, adding CCC.
- Cast Mana Crypt by paying 0.
- Hullbreaker Horror triggers, returning Mana Vault from the battlefield to your hand.
- Activate Mana Crypt by tapping it, adding CC.
- Cast Mana Vault by paying 1.
- Hullbreaker Horror triggers, returning Mana Crypt from the battlefield to your hand.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite colorless mana. Infinite storm count.
Hullbreaker Horror + Lotus Petal
+ Mana Crypt
Requires:
Lotus Petal in hand. All other permanents on the battlefield.
Steps:
- Activate Mana Crypt by tapping it, adding CC.
- Cast Lotus Petal by paying 0.
- Hullbreaker Horror triggers, returning Mana Crypt from the battlefield to your hand.
- Cast Mana Crypt by paying 0.
- Hullbreaker Horror triggers, returning Lotus Petal from the battlefield to your hand.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite colorless mana. Infinite storm count.
Grim Monolith + Nyxbloom Ancient
Requires:
All permanents on the battlefield.
Steps:
- Activate Grim Monolith’s first ability by tapping it, adding 9.
- Activate Grim Monolith’s last ability by paying 3, untapping it.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite colorless mana.
Conclusion:
Kinnan allows us to play an ultra-efficient and ultra-fast deck that can keep doing a ton of things from an early stage, combine this with an interaction and counterspell deck and we can easily hang with most of the decks present in CEDH. This deck is a ton of fun to play and there is a very good reason that Kinnan has been so prevalent in CEDH since his release! Hope you enjoyed this dive into Kinnan, we do new articles daily for various sub-formats of EDH and welcome any suggestions on our discord or our twitter, if you want something to get an article let us know!